US after monopolizing government in Afghanistan: Taliban spokesman
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
This is the first official visit by leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban to Iran.
Led by the group's top political leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, the delegation arrived in Tehran last week upon the invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
They came to Iran with the hope that Iran would speed up the slow paced intra-Afghan talks that has faced stalemate in Qatar.
The Taliban and the Afghan government have been negotiating in Qatar to reach a peace deal, but to no avail.
The intra-Afghan talks started after the United States agreed to withdraw 12,000 of its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the Taliban halting their attacks on international forces under a deal signed between the two sides in early 2020.
The Taliban says as long as the US is fighting them, it is not fit to be a neutral mediator.
Tehran lays emphasis on the need to form an inclusive Afghan government, that encompasses all the influential political forces.
In his meeting with the Taliban delegates, Iran's foreign minister stressed that different Afghan sides need to sit at the negotiating table to resolve Afghanistan’s woes.
Iran had also had similar meetings with Afghan state officials where it voiced its readiness to help promote intra-Afghan talks as the ultimate way to restoring peace and stability to the war-wracked country.
Iran says an all inclusive government holds the key to the end of all the problems gripping Afghanistan.
Tehran maintains that this would give Afghan people the chance to have the final say in their country, a right that has long been seized in the wake of foreign intervention in Kabul's affairs.
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